When Google’s AI beat a world champion at Go, scientists and technologists around the globe held it up as a watershed moment for AI. But why, exactly, is it so hard for a computer to play some games well?
Image by Bauke Karel
Without wanting to sound like a scene from the cutting room floor of Karate Kid, the truth is that out of seemingly simple rules can grow great complexity. Complexity that even the very best artificial intelligence systems struggles to come to grips with — at least if they’re to play convincingly against a talented human.
In this video, Rob Miles form the University of Nottingham in the UK explains how that complexity comes about and why computers can struggle to deal with it. Warning: This is 20 minutes long, but it is an interesting insight into the way computers handle something humans can take for granted.